Fighting Holiday Fat in the Food Court

Six names left on your shopping list before C-Day and you've been at the mall for three hours and 19 minutes. You've just heard "Little Drummer Boy" for the third time today. You're hungry. Now what?

The food court, rich in all

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its salty, sugary, fatty temptation beckons. You may feel trapped but, like the joyous season itself, you can and will survive this. The secret, of course, is knowing a little about your choices beforehand and how to make them better or, at least, not as bad. Happily, there are some nice surprises as you look for sustenance to get you through that last assault on the Sing-A-Ma-Jigs for your niece. Not all the food in the food court is as bad as we often think it is.

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Take, for example, pizza. A plain, ol' slice of cheese pizza is only about 400 calories, a perfectly reasonable lunch (avoid sugary drinks to keep the calories low) and, while you may be concerned about the fat, remember that cheese is also a fantastic source of protein. Toss on a few vegetables, while you're at it.

Not up for pizza? If your mall has a Subway, the 6-inch oven roasted chicken breast sandwich comes in at 320 calories and only 1.5 grams of saturated fat. McDonald's premium Caesar salad with grilled chicken – and no dressing – has 220 calories, 3 gams of saturated fat. Pick from Newman's Own Low Fat Balsamic vinaigrette or Newman's Low Fat Family Recipe Italian Dressing to keep the calorie count low.

Fitsugar also recommends staying away from places like Cinnabon and suggests that "[d]eli-type places … that don't even have a deep fryer are good options — in other words, places where you can't get French fries and onion rings."

Of course, the food court isn't exactly a premium location for dining sensibly, anyway, and while you may look to restaurants' calorie counts to help make choices, they're not always reliable.

"Taco Bell's fresco soft taco was supposed to contain just 0.2 grams of trans fat — a fatty acid that consumers try to avoid because it raises the blood levels of the so-called 'bad' cholesterol," reported the Vancouver Sun."But a test found the level to be 3.5 times greater at one outlet, where a taco weighed in with 0.7 grams of trans fat."

On the other hand, it might be time to check in with Santa to find out what gets him through the holiday rush.